How to Draw Fantasy Characters & NPCs

So with the launch of this site, and the imminent reboot of the Fantastic Anatomy! video tutorial series, I decided to go back and follow along with the video myself! Twas most fun drawing my own characters. I did a whole page full of skulls and then drew them up as fantasy characters. Posted the results at the bottom of this page!

The drawings below were based on following along with this video:

Step 1: Draw a Skull

Draw a basic skull but give it some personality, as this step will be the biggest factor in shaping your overall character design. You can think of shape language to convey the intended personality of your fantasy character. (For more on shape language in character design click here.)

Step 2: Draw the Eyeball

Drop some eyeballs in them there eye-sockets!

Step 3: Draw Eyelids

Step 4: Draw the Nose

In this method I draw the nose by drawing 3 circles. One larger circle in the middle (well it doesn’t have to be larger, this is FA! after all) flanked by two smaller ones. I use that as a guideline, darkening certain lines to draw in the nose.

Step 5: Draw the Lips

Draw the lips by focusing on the two “M” shapes stacked atop each other that make up the upper lip. The indicate the bottom lip with a short line. You can shade in the upper and lip and below the lower lip.

Step 6: Outline the Head and Draw in the Ears

Imagine the skin stretched tightly (or less tightly for a more portly character) around the skull. The ears fall between the eyebrow and the bottom of the nose in normal anatomy, but of course you can draw fantasy characters with bigger or smaller features as you please.

Step 7: Add Details and Name Your Characters

Here they are: Batilo, Zarvox, and, of course, Crunchy! These are the same characters from the video at the top of this page drawn 2 years later, but I’m not sure… I kinda like the originals. What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments and make sure to post links to your fantasy character drawings so I can check them out! Who knows, they might even end up in the upcoming NPC Library!

Here are some other fantasy characters I drew that also might make it into the NPC library!